The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1887-05-24
SCANDAL In A GRAMMAR
SCHOOL.
Three Pupils i'm the Girls Depart.
ment Forced to With
draw.

vealed yesterday affecting two girls who
until the present week were pupils in
Grammer School No. %, in Fortieth street,
between Seventh and Eigth avenues. These
scholars, neither of whom is yet fifteen
years old, had posed az subjects for photo
graphs Of an immoral character. A set OF
these pictures, which the girls aver was
given them by the photographers in pay
ment for their acting as subjects, was
shown about among the pupils OF
the school. Miss Fisher, teach
er of the second grade, recent
ly surprised one of the girls with
one of these pictures and shortly after
that Miss Finch, of the sixth grade, made a
similar discovery. Meanwhile another
pupil had complained to her mother of the
prevalence o. immoral talk among the girls
and also reported that the pictures were in
circulation. The father of this girl, who is
q reporter on a morning newspaper, was 50
incensed that he commenced a private in
vestigation to find out at what photograph
gallery the pictures had been taken. The
reporter succeeded in getting proof that
they came from the establishment of Chap
man & Willis, of No. 275 Sixth avenue,
and that of q woman named Becker, of No
500 Eighth avenue.
Then the facts were laid before the
principal of the school, Miss Lowery. who
has filled that position for the past seven
teen years. On account of her illness.
which confined her to her home, at No.
20S3 Fifth avenue, Miss Lowery's inyes-
tigation was delayed. But the parents of
the two girls, when informed of what had
been discovered, got from the children a
confession Of their extraordinary conduct.
One of them said that she visited Chap
man u Willis's place to have
some tintypes taken, and that
one of the proprietors induced her-under
promise Of receiving some copies of the
pictures-to pose in a number of different
positions with her garments more or less
disarranged. The photographer told the
reposter that the girls visited his place to-
gether and told him they were members of
theatrical troupe. 1t is difficult to i'm
agine that any person could have been de-
ceived into believing such a story on ac-
count of the youth of the girls. Under
threat of arrest and prosecution the mega
tives of all the pictures were turned over
to the irate father of the girl, and they
were destroyed.
The attention of School Commissioner
Wood was called to the matter, and on his
complaint, Mr.. Jasper, Superintendent of
Public Schools, yesterday summoned Miss
Lowrey to his Office. The principal sail
he was satisfied that none of the other
pupils had been guilty of such acts, and
that the evil had not spread. The parents
of the children were represented as being
very DESTROYS of having the investigation
go no further. One of the girls, who would
have been graduated next Christmas, has
been expelled and has been sent into the
country with relatives. The other, who had
been in the school less than a year, has
been placed in q convent, and her mother
lies in precarious condition,
having suffered from nervous pros
tration and hysteria as a result of the
disgrace. Still third girl, against whom
q charge was preferred for using immoral
language, has been Withdrawn from the
school. Supt. jackson says that he is
powerless to do ANYTHING. further on &C
count of the refusal of the parents to take
any proceedings against the photographers.
The superintendent, however, viii person.
ally visit the school to-day to investigate a
charge that pupils in the sixth grade had
been demoralized. The Board of Educa-
ton will also discuss the case.